{"id":35679,"date":"2026-04-10T17:00:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T21:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=35679"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:14:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:14:01","slug":"final-night-and-final-inspiration-at-pla2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/final-night-and-final-inspiration-at-pla2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Final night and final inspiration at #PLA2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As excellent as the content has been, my favorite benefit of an in-person event is the side conversations and unexpected connections. Tonight, after the sessions ended, attendees made their way back to hotels and the airport. One person made a kind invitation in the conference app to meet up for dinner. After so many focused conversations, it was an absolute delight to gather with a group of strangers who all love public libraries. We came from around the country, different library sizes, and different jobs within them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Someone asked: “What’s something about your library that makes you especially proud?<\/em>” (Note: This is an excellent conversation starter!) All of the answers were fun, interesting, and heart-warming. Some examples included an “out and about storytime” where a librarian in a small town takes storytime on the road to where kids and families are. Another library has teens tutor younger kids every Saturday. This sounds like a win all around! One library hosts a carnival event and a comic convention. One does a toddler rave. Did you know there is an electronic dance music version of Wheels on the Bus<\/em>? Now you do. The same library hosted an anti-Valentine’s Day teen event where participants made zombie beany babies and whacked a pi\u00f1ata.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, our colleagues are doing amazing things, and they’re a lot of fun to hang out with.<\/p>\n\n\n

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None of us can boast of a drink this wild, but it was on the menu. This photo is from the restaurant website<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Amelia Jenkins<\/strong> (she\/her) is a member of the Youth Services staff at the Juneau Public Library<\/a>. For over 20 years, she has been working with patrons ages 0 to 18 and the adults who care for them. At the Public Library Association Conference, she is most excited about experiencing the many informal connections that happen between all of the amazing sessions. She grew up on a fishing boat and always thought that any job on dry land was terribly glamorous!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are interested in submitting a guest post, please read and fill out our Guest Blogging Interest Form<\/a>. We would love to hear from you!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As excellent as the content has been, my favorite benefit of an in-person event is the side conversations and unexpected connections. Tonight, after the sessions ended, attendees made their way back to hotels and the airport. One person made a kind invitation in the conference app to meet up for dinner. After so many focused conversations, it was an absolute delight to gather with a group of strangers who all love public libraries. We came from around the country, different library sizes, and different jobs within them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":428,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[134,151,3151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-blogger","category-live-blogging","category-pla-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}